by Shelly Brown
“It’s Hannah,” he said, rolling his eyes and waving his cell phone in the air.
Chapter 31
Murder Most Foul
Tiffany
I made my way through the front door, up the stairs, and back into my room without my parents coming out. The first thing that I noticed was that I had left the window open and the room was chilly. The second thing was that my room was way too small for all of the ghosts that had followed me home.
What was I going to do with all of them?
Could I really protect that many children from Lisette? My back still hurt from her throwing me.
They were cute though.
Ruby came up to me. Ruby, she said. I understood her. I was getting better at this.
“Yes.” I smiled at her. “I know.”
I shook off the panic of being ghostsitter to so many dead children and got ready for the night. Shooing kids off of my bed, I crawled in. The Pettersen kids climbed in either side and I was about to shoo them off as well, but in sheer exhaustion I just pretended they weren’t there and eventually fell asleep.
Apparently sleeping with thirty ghost kids was worse than sleeping with three.
Go figure.
They climbed over me, jumped on my bed, bumped things over in the room. Not to mention being occasionally awoken by a scream here and there. Henry tossed in the night a lot, probably due to the awful events with Lisette, and one kid even decided he wanted to sleep along the top of my pillow and I awoke to a bum on my face.
“Morning, T-cup.”
I tried to lift my head but the bum made that tricky.
“You alright, baby?” Mom came into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. Patrick disappeared before he could be sat on. Mom laid a hand on my forehead while I stretched. “You don’t look so good. Maybe you should stay home and see a doctor?”
That sounded like a horrible idea. “I’m fine. Besides I have a quiz in English.” Which was a lie.
Mom didn’t look convinced, but she left and I made my way to the bathroom. Ghost kids were scattered everywhere. I cautiously made my way around them. A shrill scream startled me as I tripped over one rather see-through boy.
I tried to brush my teeth but there was one short fat kid who wouldn’t stop squeezing the toothpaste out onto the counter. After the third time, I put the cap on and held it under my arm so he couldn’t reach it. Kids lined the countertop, fighting over a chance to see their own reflections, which made it impossible for me to do my hair. I even had a little girl dump out all of my hairbands on the ground. After being bumped, prodded, and tripped I’d had enough. I wasn’t running a ghost day care.
“Out!” I shouted and pointed towards the door. Unfortunately I pointed with the wrong arm and the toothpaste fell out from it’s safe place, allowing the obsessed ghost to grab it, pop the top off, and squeeze the toothpaste out onto the floor.
“Oooooout!” I bellowed, snatching the toothpaste tube back, and opening the door for them all to leave (as if they needed to use the door.)
They left rather speedily and I glanced out to make sure they really scrammed.
Mom and Dad stood right outside the door. They fake grinned when they saw me.
“You okay?” Mom said, her eyes worried and her smile plastered.
“Yeah, sorry.” I looked down, embarrassed to make eye contact with them and saw some little kid licking my dad’s shoe.
“Stop. That’s disgusting.” The words were out before I realized what I had done.
Mom nodded at Dad and he offered to drive me to school.
I didn’t like them nodding and whispering. “I’m fine walking, thanks.”
Mom took my hand and mouthed for Dad to get my shoes. She led me down the stairs and into the garage.
I shook my hand free. “I don’t need a ride. I can walk.”
She opened my car door. “We’re all going to breakfast at Sylvia’s. That sounds fun doesn’t it?” Reluctantly I got in. Breakfast actually sounded amazing. All I had eaten for dinner the night before was a few bites of that lemon bar.
I put on my seatbelt, grateful that I had already gotten dressed, and curious about what my hair must have really looked like. An uneasy feeling settled around me. I wasn’t sure if it was about the children or about how weird my parents were acting.
Dad got in the car and threw my shoes at me. “Good job,” he said to Mom then opened the garage door and backed out onto the street like he was a NASCAR driver.
Justin, with his backpack on, was crossing the street to come over and Dad almost hit him. I didn’t think it was on purpose but I couldn’t be sure. While Dad shifted from reverse to drive, Justin and I just stared at one another with nothing but utter confusion on our faces.
And then we drove off.
Chapter 32
Murder Most Foul
Justin
Two things occupied my mind all morning. The first was my parents. Had they come between me and Lisette on purpose? After I tried to distract her, they came running in. Were they trying to protect me? That didn’t make sense. Maybe they thought they were the only ones that could torment me.
But when I glanced back and Lisette was doing her pounding freak out, I thought I saw my mother smiling. Like she had seen me stand up to Lisette and was proud of me. Since their deaths I had never seen either of the ghosts smile. I had seen other ghosts smile, here and there, but never my parents. Was I just confused? Maybe she was smirking or letting her ghost teeth get some air. I really couldn’t make any sense of it.
The second thing that made my mind wander through all of Social Studies was where the heck was Tiffany Hart? If it hadn’t been her parents in the front seats, I would have said she was kidnapped, that’s how scared she looked. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I kept checking my pinky since our invisible red strings were tied there. Like I would see something to let me know if she was okay or not.
She finally showed her face at lunch and the knot in my stomach loosened.
I leapt up at the sight of her, but remembering that she wouldn’t talk to me at school, I sat back down. Tiffany flipped her hair and situated herself between Jessica and Mario at the cool table. They seemed to be talking excitedly when she looked across the room and we made eye contact. Her face got somber. She excused herself and snaked her way through the crowds until she reached me.
She came towards me.
On purpose.
At school.
She gave a soft smile as she sat next to me.
Next to me.
At school.
I have to admit, as stupid as it may sound, I felt pretty important at that very moment.
“You would never believe where my parents took me this morning,” she said in hushed tones. “My mom knows some shrink and they’re all convinced that I have psychological issues I have to work out. The shrink currently thinks I could have an early case of schizophrenia.”
I chuckled. I had seen my share of psychologists right after the accident. “I got diagnosed with acute hallucinations with possible delirium.”
“Then I’m in good company.” She yawned. “All of the kids have been following me everywhere. All. Of. Them. Fortunately they seem to grasp the importance of not causing a commotion though.” She shook her head. “Well, except Patrick. Even at the shrink’s office he threw a magazine at the receptionist and everyone blamed me. They said I was acting out for having been brought against my will.” She looked at the cool table then said, “Well, I better get back.”
I followed her gaze. Jessica was looking at us with narrow eyes.
“Wait,” I said, “before you go, I want to tell you what I found out this morning. After you disappeared, I went to the Antioch Historical Society to search their county records. All adoptions before 1935 are made public so I looked up the Pettersen kids and guess what
?”
“Wait, a minute,” Tiffany said drawing out the words. “This morning? Did you ditch school?”
I bit my lips and hesitated to answer. Finally I blurted out, “Only first period but you didn’t let me get to the good part.” I tried to steer her back on track.
She burst into laughter. “No way!”
I was desperate to get back on topic. “Tiffany, their adoption doesn’t show up. I even had Nellie run a search for me and neither of us could find it anywhere. I only found two adoptions from the Heart and Grace Orphanage between May of 1918 and the end of 1919. Two! That book at the Hacienda can’t be right.”
I had her attention. The laughter was gone but her mouth hung open in thought.
“You wanna hear my icky theory?” I asked.
Tiffany nodded.
“Lisette killed them and buried them behind the orphanage. That’s why she doesn’t want us near that spot.”
Chapter 33
Digging for Bones
Justin
It took a lot of convincing, but right after school I dragged Tiffany to the police station. Nellie from the Historical Society met us there and sat between us like she was chaperoning her grandkids.
In the movies police stations were buzzing with activity. In reality this one resembled an office, with polite people typing . . . stuff.
Officer Murphy sat across from us. He was young cop with a bright white smile and cornrows in his hair. “Behind the Hacienda? Just down the street?”
I played with the sleeve of my jacket. “Everything points to it.”
The cop looked over at Tiffany, but she was watching as huge water bottle on top of the cooler fell over and spill everywhere. For a minute the entire police station’s attention was on cleaning up the mess and figuring out how it happened in the first place. But I knew it had to be Tiffany’s ghosts.
Eventually Officer Murphy turned back to us. “Nellie, do you really think that we’ll find something there?”
She pulled out papers from her huge purse. “I know how crazy it all sounds, but young Mr. Henderson had me look up adoption records and this shows all of the adoptions from The Heart and Grace Orphanage.” She handed the pages to the policeman and then started rummaging through her purse again. “And then I got a photograph of the adoption records at the Hacienda itself and you’ll see that they don’t reconcile. Those children are missing.” She finally produced a photograph with the date written in fancy cursive on the back.
Officer Murphy studied the materials in his hands. “And Jerome and Frank are okay with this?”
“More than okay! They’ve called that place haunted for years now, hoping to get more customers.” Nellie sat on the edge of her seat. “In fact Jerome told me that I could start digging today if I wanted. When I asked about his customers he replied, ‘Show them a few bones. That’ll liven the place up.’ So if it wasn’t for going through the proper channels before exhuming bodies, I’d be in my gardening jeans with a shovel in back of the Hacienda right now.”
Officer Murphy set the papers down and studied the photograph. “I’m just going to need to make sure that this is sufficient proof. Do you have any more?”
The question caught me off guard and I looked at Tiffany. She gave me her best I-will-kill-you-if-you-tell look and I shook my head.
“All the proof we have is in your hands.” I shifted in my seat and turned my attention back to Officer Murphy. “We’d like permission to get more proof.”
Officer Murphy scratched his head. “Interesting case. With the owners’ permission I should be able to clear everything pretty fast.”
“Excellent!” Nellie clasped her hands.
***
Tiffany had made it home before her parents and drew a happy face on her window. It was a good sign because I had an impossible mission ahead of me and I needed the positive energy.
My heart beat faster as I made my way up the porch steps and rang the doorbell.
Mr. Hart opened the door.
“No,” he said and was just about to shut it when Tiffany came around the corner and pulled the knob out of her dad’s hand.
“Hey Justin,” she said, looking rather confused.
Mrs. Hart made her way from behind them to the door. “Justin, I haven’t seen you for a couple of days. Come in.”
It was amazing to me how almost every time I arrived at their home, I was greeted by the entire Hart family. Every person who lived under that roof had come to the door to see me. At my house we didn’t even always answer the door.
Cautiously I stepped in, leaving a wide breadth as I passed Mr. Hart. “I came over to tell Tiffany that I just got off the phone with the guy we talked to today . . .”
I gave her the stare that meant—you know, wink-wink—and she rolled her eyes so I continued. “He said that they think we were right and they’re starting the digging right now and we are invited to watch. All things considered, I thought it might be important for us to be there.”
Tiffany’s face lit up. “Let’s go.” She ran up the stairs, to get something, her purse or shoes or both.
“Whoa, nobody is going anywhere.” Mr. Hart turned towards me. “Do your sisters know where you’re headed?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What on earth does any of that mean?” I could see the gum in Mrs. Hart’s mouth as she stopped chewing to think. “Digging? Digging for what?”
I spewed out the story I had concocted on the way over. “It’s a school project that we have been working really hard on. History. We think we’ve discovered where some graves might be and the city is going to help us find out if we’re right.”
Mrs. Hart’s eyes lit up. “Graves? Well that sounds really exciting. I don’t see how we can say no to that.”
“I can,” Mr. Hart said. He turned to me. “No.”
Tiffany came bounding down the stairs in four or so leaps, with a coat and shoes on.
“Come on, Jason,” Mrs. Hart said opening the coat closet and pulling out her brown leather jacket. “I’ll go with them. I want to see this.”
“Fine,” Mr. Hart said sticking his hands in his pocket. “I’m staying home and watching the Niners game. Peggy, don’t get so busy watching the dig that you forget to watch these two.” He wagged his finger between me and Tiffany then left the room.
It worked.
There was a lot going on when we got there. The restaurant was still serving people and a backhoe was coming off a truck in the parking lot. There were lights on tripods set up over the grassy patch and sections roped off with yellow tape.
Nellie was bent over some papers with Officer Murphy. She noticed me and waved me over. “Isn’t this exciting?” She rested her shaky hand on my back. “You’re a bright boy, Justin. One day you might be a famous historian.”
Officer Murphy looked up from studying the papers. “He might have a future in police detective work. You too, young lady,” he said motioning with his chin to Tiffany.
Mrs. Hart patted her girl on the shoulder.
Some guy in a neon reflective vest started shouting to get out of the way and the backhoe drove around from the parking lot to our dig site. It was noisy for something not much bigger than a large truck, but just coming up the curb I could tell that it was powerful. The driver lowered the front loader and as soon as the large shovel hit the ground the machine went silent. It died. The driver started it back up just fine but when he put it in gear to move it forward, it died again.
Mrs. Hart shuddered and Tiffany leaned towards me and whispered, “Do you feel that?”
It was faint but my adrenaline had definitely kicked up a notch.
One of the guys ran up and checked the gas tank while another inspected the engine. They tried to fire it back up again but it kept dying. They pulled it back and drove it around the parking lot to make sure it was doing
well then they brought it around to the back again and it died.
“Dang, that’s giving me the willies!” shouted one of the guys who was working on the backhoe. He didn’t say “dang,” but he did say “willies.’” It looked like it wasn’t just Tiffany and me that could feel Lisette nearby.
A sharp breeze made the lights on the tripod sway. Mrs. Hart pulled Tiffany in close to protect her from the wind.
The construction guys talked for a bit then decided to start digging by hand until they could get the backhoe working again. Four men approached with shovels and the first guy whose shovel touched the ground found his shovel flying out of his hands, propelled backwards into the unlit darkness of the trees. One after the other, three more shovels flew, a couple of them clattering on the kitchen patio. Nellie screeched as one landed near her feet.
Everyone was murmuring. One of the shovel guys kept saying, “I swear I didn’t do that,” and one of the other ones was cussing really loud. I heard someone outside of the lighted area say, “I have a bad feeling about this,” and the supervisor was talking to one of the other guys, trying to convince him to dig, I think.
Mrs. Hart pulled Tiffany in closer, wrapping both arms all of the way around her. “What on earth just happened?”
Tiffany breathed out what we were both thinking, “Lisette is going to win.”
The idea that we could get that far and be stopped at the very end made me mad. Grown men were being wimps and some stupid ghost was bullying a bunch of kids.
Well, not any more.
I grabbed one of the shovels that had fallen on the patio. “Are they here?” I asked Tiffany.
“Who?”
“The kids. I want them to see this.” I walked to the center of the roped off area. The lights were bright making it impossible to see anything outside of their glow. But I didn’t need to see anything. I knew what was there. Somewhere there was a crazy demon woman with a secret she was trying to keep hidden. Somewhere, just outside of the light, my crush watched, nestled in her mother’s arms. Somewhere there were thirty kids who had been waiting a hundred years to be free.